est me hear them now, O my Saviour, not to condemn me, but to bring me to sorrow for the offences I have committed against thee. Yes, O Jesus, I sincerely repent of all the displeasure which I have given thee. For my own miserable gratifications I have forsaken thee, my God, my sovereign infinite good! But behold me a penitent returned to thee; and reject me not.
III. Why will you die, O house of Israel? return ye and live. Ez. xviii. 31, 32. I have died, says Jesus Christ, for the salvation of your souls, and why will you condemn them by your sins to eternal death? Return to me, and you shall recover the life of my grace. O Jesus, I should not dare to crave thy pardon, did I not know that thou hast died to obtain my forgiveness. Alas! how often have I despised thy grace and thy love! O that I had died rather than ever offered thee so great an injury! But thou, who didst come near to me even when I offended thee, wilt not now reject me, when I love thee and seek no other but thee. My God and my all, suffer me not any more to be ungrateful to thee. Mary, queen, and mother, obtain for me the grace of holy perseverance.
Meditation Thirty-fourth.
On the mercy of God in calling sinners to repentance.
I. THE Lord called to Adam, and said to him: Where art thou? Gen. iii. 10. These are the words of a father, says a pious author, going in quest of his lost son. O the immense compassion of our God! Adam sins, he turns his back upon God; and yet God does not abandon him, but follows him and calls after him: Adam, where art thou?
